


Perfectly Fine

by hangonsilvergirl



Series: Everyone Wants Something They Don't Have [2]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-02
Updated: 2015-01-02
Packaged: 2018-03-04 20:25:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3087938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hangonsilvergirl/pseuds/hangonsilvergirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One more shovelful dumped on the bullshit pile he tried to pass off as a life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perfectly Fine

**Author's Note:**

> Manga-verse. Volume 21, Chapter 84 "The Shadow of the Pursuer." This takes place while Winry is fixing up Ed's automail, before she tells him about Liore/Al and etc, and shortly before this infamy:
> 
>  
> 
> [Originally written as a Tumblr prompt](http://hangonsilvergirl.tumblr.com/post/102939715249/dont-worry-ed-youll-be-wrenched-good-and).

There wasn’t a sound in the room beyond their breathing, and of the clink of metal on metal as Winry diligently began fine-tuning his leg. The tension between them--her worry, his frustration--was palpable, invisibly crackling in the air like static on a cold day. Ed knew that they were both struggling to find words. He wished, not for the first time in his life, that he was one of those people who just _knew_ what to say, that he could articulate himself without cramming his foot in his mouth first. When it came to Winry, especially, Ed felt like a dumb kid throwing around cherry bombs, hoping beyond hope that they might burn into a brighter, more beautiful kind of firework.  
  
It was Winry who spoke first.  
  
“You didn’t say where you were,” she said, voice small and tentative. Ed turned his head to look back at her. They surveyed one another through the fringes of their respective bangs. It was amazing how her expression seemed to convey sadness, exhaustion and anger all in one look. There was something else, too, that Ed couldn’t quite place. He shifted slightly, suddenly and inexplicably made uncomfortable by his observation. His shirt rode up, and he watched as Winry’s eyes flicked briefly to his abdomen, then back to his leg, then back to his abdomen again. She stared. Then she reached forward to push the bunched material gently, revealing the extent of what had caught her attention. She gaped. Ed closed his eyes and held his breath, wincing prematurely, fully prepared for a wrench to the face.

It never came.

He cracked open an eye, and she was looking straight at him.

“Edward. What. What’s that?”

Ed put both hands on his face, palms rubbing angrily against his eyeballs before dragging them down to his chin. “The answer to your first question,” he mumbled lamely through his fingers. At least she couldn’t see that it was on both sides of his body. “I got hurt fighting Kimblee. Donkey Kong and Lion King defected after that dickface abandoned them. They took me to a doctor."

She was still looking at him.

“What?” Ed said defensively. “I’m _fine_.”

“Oh, yeah, _obviously_! Sorry, Ed, you’re right, that looks _perfectly_ fine!"

Ed rolled his eyes, then brought his hands down to his shirt, which he irritably tugged back over the pink, knotted star-burst. One more scar. One more story. One more shovelful dumped on the bullshit pile he tried to pass off as a life. “Well I wasn’t fine _then_. But I’m fine _now_.”

She was quiet for a moment, watching him skeptically.

“I don’t know if I believe that,” she said finally, but didn’t press the way he frowned at her words. She returned her attention to the nuts and bolts that held together the leg she’d built for him to stand on.


End file.
